“Things are going well,” said Batch via the Associated Press. “We’ll see how things progress over the coming days.”

We’ll take it.

Batch, Chiefs Jets fullback Tony Richardson, and Browns linebacker Scott Fujita headed to the airport after the meetings. It’s unclear if other players will take their place on Tuesday when the fifth straight day of talks is expected to happen.

There is no way to know how much progress has been made under the watchful eye of federal mediator George Cohen, but the sides have talked for roughly 27 hours face-to-face since Friday.

Come on, guys — let’s make a deal. A good mediator takes it as a personal challenge to get a deal done. Failure to do so is a defeat — and mediators to not like defeat.

iknowfootballandyoudont says:Feb 21, 2011 8:40 PM

Hurry up and get these meetings over so the owners can declare an impasse and lock out the players.
The owners AND the players are too damn greedy. Who cares if they play a full season. I am not spending another dime on game tickets and will watch the Sunday ticket on my bigscreenS.

“Hurry up and get these meetings over so the owners can declare an impasse and lock out the players.”

I have a hunch I know why you’re not involved.

possiblecabbage says:Feb 21, 2011 8:51 PM

It’s a glorious time to be an optimist and one of the all-time terrible times to be a pessimist.

aaluck says:Feb 21, 2011 8:56 PM

Why the silence? Why not tell the people that support this league what is going on? I called the NFL on Friday and one of their flunkies read from a index card. Told me that they were not commenting on the progress. There is enough to go around for everyone. We make sure of that every Sunday by either spending hundreds at a game or dropping $ on the Sunday ticket

While listening to an ESPN segment on the impasse at the bargaining table over the issue of the 18 game versus 16 game NFL regular season, an idea occurred to me (and it may have already been discussed and rejected but I thought I’d mention it just in case) in that rather than change the length of the regular season why not add another weekend of Play Offs as a 17th game as a compromise solution? Although there could be several different scenarios for the extra game, the simplest one that occurs to me would be to allow all 32 teams to make the playoffs then have each Divison play off against each other (1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3). Then the winners would play each other to determine the divisional champion, who would then playoff against the other winners (best records get home field advantage). The winner of those games would advance to the conference finals and then of course the super bowl. For a wild card team you would be adding one additional playoff game but there would be no byes for the 2 teams with the best record.

By doing so you would make the end of the season viable for even those teams that start poorly and are effectively out of the running by the midway point, even though they may finish strongly. Therefore, a team could maintan fan interest to the end of the season. An extra playoff game also would be another huge revenue generator.

I don’t know how well this would be received, but at least it would show that the league is willing to discuss other alternatives to creating more revenue for all to share.

Yours truly,
Scott Schelske

(A 58 year old life long fan who lives in Canada).

P.S. Please do everything in your power to keep the Vikings in Minnesota.

Could you imagine having to sit through these meetings listening to Goodell’s thoughts and opinions and his ego take hold of a conversation. If they get this deal done while having to endure him, they deserve a beer or two.

Expanding the playoffs is an even dumber idea than expanding the regular season. You could conceivably have a sub-.500 team ending up in the Super Bowl if a team gets hot at just the right time. I don’t see any rush to expand the schedule if its a sticking point in getting a CBA. I can’t believe we’d have a lockout over “that” issue.

Those of us old enough to recall the last contentious labor negotiations will remember the short season, the scabs, and the decidedly poor competition. It’s ugly.

dryheaveone says:Feb 21, 2011 10:02 PM

aaluck says:
Feb 21, 2011 8:56 PM
Why the silence? Why not tell the people that support this league what is going on? I called the NFL on Friday and one of their flunkies read from a index card. Told me that they were not commenting on the progress. There is enough to go around for everyone. We make sure of that every Sunday by either spending hundreds at a game or dropping $ on the Sunday ticket

I don’t see the big deal, counting the preseason games, play 20 games and get paid for 18, or keep it like it is and play 20 games and get paid for 16. Seems like a no brainer to me. Thats more paychecks per year, which equals more checks per career.